Non-subscription shard launched

A permanent "starter area" is a nice way of moving away from the time-limited subscription - when I first started the game I didn't run up against cpu limits before the trial ran out, it was only later, GCL4/5 that my code was doing enough for cpu to be an issue so the trial was basically meaningless to me.

This new constrained area will give a challenge for older players who want something different to work on, while also somewhat limiting the power differential between old and new players in the shard. This should provide a softer landing and an easier/longer on-ramp for new players.

There are some well-thought out changes being made to the game in the last month or two

Since players will be way less expansive due to the CPU limit, it will take a whole lot of time until Shard3 will be full. And it also solves all the "when does my subscription start"-confusion. Two birds with one stone!

This sounds like a good compromise. New steam players get to build up a pretty decent base and can actually compete on an even playing field, while retaining the ability to get a subscription if they feel like it.

Only problem is, it seems like cross-sharding your script would need to be made easier to avoid having shard3 impact profits too much (since if it's too hard to expand outside of shard3 due to cross-shard mechanics, players are less likely to expand and thus get a subscription).